Going home for his grandfather's funeral, thirty-year-old bachelor Daikichi is floored to discover that the old man had an illegitimate child with a younger lover! The rest of his family is equally shocked and embarrassed by this surprise development, and not one of them wants anything to do with the silent little girl, Rin. In a fit of angry spontaneity, Daikichi decides to take her in himself! But will living with this overgrown teenager of a man help Rin come out of her shell? And hang on, won't this turn of events spell doom for Daikichi's love life?!

A cute and fun series for both male and female audience. It does have common grounds with Aishiteruze Baby and Akachan to Boku (Baby & Me), but is rendered differently. A must-read among the heart whelming stories.

This really is a great manga. I'm not gonna discuss the first half of this series (which everybody should DEFINITELY read/watch). Yes its heartwarming. Yes Rin is the most adorable thing ever. Yes you're rooting for Daikichi every step of the way. But given all the hype about the ending, I'll just say this. Whatever was your first guess as regards the ending, the guess you made off the top of your head thinking "it could be this eh but its only the worst case scenario I'm sure the mangaka didn't go THAT far" is...

Spoiler (mouse over to view)

TRUE! Or at least in my case it was... Rin and Daikichi DO get married. Ugh... but as mind-blowingly disturbing this is, I'll first state the positives and emphasise that, before the ending, the time skip half of the manga is not a complete train wreck!

Positives:1. Everybodys characters are believable grown up. Rin is mature and smart as expected, Reina sweet and a bit on the thoughtless side, Kouki (although his character design took a bit of getting used to at first) is also believable. Daikichi coud definitely have used more screen time but the parts where he shows up are the highlights of the chapter imo (plus, his involvement in Kouki's life serves to show how much of a surrogate father he becomes to Kouki too).2. Yes, another "high-school" manga *groan*... BUT it surprisingly didnt hold the endless Festival-Christmas-Valentines Day madness as shoujo mangas normally thrive on. Instead, the kids actually spend most of their time studying! Lol, can it be more realistic? :P3. The way the romances for Daikichi/Kouki's mom and Rin/Kouki was dealt with. I think its safe to say that everybody was rooting for both these pairings (the former more than the latter maybe; Kouki's feelings for Rin felt more like puppy love to me). I was really sad when both pairings decided they couldn't be together, but I felt it was dealt with in a very mature way. Daikichi and Kouki's mom agreed to put their kids before themselves, reminding one that in reality all romances hardly ever get their happy endings, and in Rin/Kouki's case, it serves to show their strong trust in each other when they manage to easily fall back into their sibling-like relationship, and that for them its always friendship first, love second.4. More on Masako and whats happened with her recently which proves really interesting.5. Despite the *cringe* feelings that Rin starts to develop for Daikichi, I really empathised for her. Definitely confused, torn with herself, had not the ending been executed as poorly as it was I might have forgave her her state of affairs considering she realized the implications of it fully and didn't even want Daikichi to find out in the first place.

And now... to the negatives (in order of negative-ness!):1. Kouki's mom remarries. WHAT?! After saying that she felt too old for marriage and too taken up with Kouki to even consider it, WHY would she remarry anyway? No sufficient reason is given for it and I feel that its just unfairly put forth by the mangaka to give her character's relationship with Daikichi some sense of closure so he can "move on" to Rin.2. Kouki actually encourages the relationship between Rin and Daikichi. This was really horrifying to me, especially the line he gives to Daikichi, "Better you than Yunohara (orwhateverhisnameis)". HOW CAN IT BE BETTER THAN THE OTHER GUY?? Daikichi is as much a surrogate father to Kouki as he is to Rin, so this pretty much killed the character of Kouki for me somehow...3. The ending. Sigh, well the closest I've come to this sort of a relationship in any other manga is in Inuyasha, with Sesshomaru and Rin. Now that I've read the ending to this manga, I can *now* totally understand why some fans of Inuyasha hated the idea of the two becoming romantically involved with each other when Rin grew up (I was all for it :P). But given the quality of execution in Inuyasha, I feel its safe to say that I'd have loved if Takahashi showed them ending up together anyway, and I'll tell you why. Sesshomaru, no matter how kind he becomes towards Rin, never REALLY is the father figure missing in her life the way Daikichi is towards this Rin (lol I just realized I've been talking about 2 Rins all along here, sorry for the confusion ^^;). So yeah, Daikichi, even when its proven that their blood relation doesn't exist (where did that come from all of a sudden? O_o), and despite the fact that I don't have much of a problem with age gaps in relationships (hey if you could stomach the Souichi/Masako relationship way in the beginning, you could stomach this too), is still for all intents and purposes Rin's FATHER! And then Daikichi's response towards Rin... ugh totally killed his character for me too. Where's the resistance? Why this sudden caving in and whats your reason for loving Rin that way now *two years gap be damned*??? People say they should have shown more romantic gestures towards each other like kissing and holding hands to justify their new relationship, but I disagree. Given the talk abt pregnancy in the last chapter, I was disturbed enough about it without adding a kiss or two between the couple.

Sigh, well I hope that was helpful! If it wasn't I'm sorry, but I actually wrote this review more because I had to get these thoughts outta my system into words more than anything else. If such an ending does happen in real life, and it does fall into the "mature" genre of josei somehow, I respect your opinion. maybe I'd even agree with it if it was executed better and made more believable. Sorry the first half was far more convincing to me than the second.

I can now proceed to move on and pretend that the time skip half of the manga didn't exist...

I highly reccomend this manga, the relationship between Daikichi and Rin is quite adorable, and their interactions are quite realistic. While I liked the story more before the timeskip, I understand that it was neccesary for how the author wanted the story to end, and I in all honesty think that the timeskip was done well. I disagree with people who say that the quality of the plot took a dramatic downturn, because while it is true that the direction of the story and tone of the plot do change quite drastically, this is something that the author felt that they needed to do, and I feel that it was executed well. The manga finished its run in Japan this april, so I already know how the story ends, and I must say, I am quite pleased with how everything turned out.

Major spolier warning-

Spoiler (highlight to view)

Rin soon confesses that she has always had feelings for Daikichi and while Daikichi freaks out for a bit, after Rin graduates from high school, and it becomes apparent that she is adament about staying with Daikichi and taking care of him for the rest of his life, they end up getting married. This is also why I see the need for the time-skip, as it would have been too abrupt and not a little bit akward if the manga went from the pre-time skip phase to an ending with Rin confessing and them getting married with no lead-up.

As I said before, I am quite pleased with how things turned out. While some readers might feel that this development came out of the blue, and that Rin should have gotten together with her childhood friend, I feel that the only one who ever truly cared about Rin and loved her no matter what was Daikichi, and that he is a better match for Rin that anybody else. He took her in when no one else would, and raised and cared for her, even though he knew that it would make his life much more difficult.

Rin's friend(I forget his name at the moment- Kouki or something) also felt very one-dimensonal in his love for Rin, and didn't quite seem like he fit. There is also the most important factor, the fact that person Rin loved was in fact Daikichi and no one else, that made them a good match.

For people complaining about the age difference, while it is admittedly quite large, around 22 years, I don't really think it makes that much o f adifference if they really care about eachother.

And of course, to the inevitable droves of people who will soon be squealing about incest(i'm looking at you bimbosilly and others), its not like they are brother and sister or actually father and daughter. She's his grandfathers daughter with a different mother than his own grandmother, which makes her only 1/8 related blood-wise. Honestly I wouldn't really care if they were brother and sister; I've never had a problem with incest appearing in manga or any other work of fiction, or in reality for that matter either, as long as both parties consent. If they love each other, why should it matter to anyone? And don't even get started on "birth defects" and all of that. But that is a whole different topic.

I think over all the ending was quite sweet and probably the best ending that honestly could have occured.

For some major letdown, I literally made an account JUST to comment on this manga which I was HEAD OVER HEELS in love with until about Vol.7 ... I'm actually such a fan of the first half that I can't bring myself NOT to recommend it even now. It was beautifully written, complex, bitter sweet at times, and wholly engaging. I can't recall the last time I read a manga that managed to pull at my emotions AND keep me on the edge of my seat ... but then ... there was the time skip *headdesk* and everything after that is just a jumbled cluster*uck of shock value and ploys to grab attention. Which this manga in no way needed to do.

I'm not even touching on the whole incestuous thing here because, well the managaka has lamely clarified that through some mystical loophole this is not incest in the end right? *rolls eyes*

Anyway, what I wanna talk about is the COMPLETE IMPLAUSIBILITY OF THIS ENDING EVER HAPPENING BASED ON THE HISTORY WE WERE PROVIDED WITH IN THE MANGA.

Spoiler (mouse over to view)

Point 1: The Daikichi whom I fell in love with for being the awesomeness that he is lol, is clearly (and has been since volume TWO) in love with Nitani-san (Kouki's mom). Who I might add quite clearly returns his feelings. But of course post timeskip and for reasons which are NEVER explained, mangaka marries her off to some random dude in order to accommodate the ridiculous ending. I could've swallowed the theory that they "sacrificed themselves" for Kouki and Rin ... but wait due to Rin's spoiled selfishness they were never an item so errr ... am I missing something here? Nitani-san can't marry Daikichi but she CAN marry some random dude?

Point 2: In every sense aside from blood, Rin is Daikichi's daughter ... Anyone reading this story can understand that within the first few chapters. The managaka made it so clear that he treasures and protects Rin as a parent with every ounce of his being ... and you're telling me this same hardworking, practical and protective father, turns around twelve years later and is suddenly able to view the seventeen year old CHILD he's raised in a sexual sense and MARRY HER? Are you F'N kidding me?

Point 3: Rin & Kouki ... this was so poorly done it was incredible, like watching a train wreck I swear. The managaka used the FLIMSIEST logic in the world to excuse how in the span of like a week Rin went from loving Kouki who she's had a crush on since they were SEVEN, to suddenly being steadfastly in love with Daikichi. Apparently for Kouki, despite being blatantly and almost RIDICULOUSLY devoted to Rin and telling her every five seconds that he likes her, having a nasty conniving ex-girlfriend is reason enough to just decide to never give him a chance.

You know there's just so much that doesn't add up, I'd be here all day listing them all ... And THAT'S my biggest problem with the ending. Not the quasi incestuousness, but the fact that I invested myself into nine VOLUMES, only to find that SIX of them (the BEST 6 btw) had absolutely nothing to do with where the story ended up. Sad, sad, SAD!

Knowing that the anime will soon air, I frankly couldn't hold my curiosity much longer and decided to give it a shot but at first I did not want to dig in too deep so I won't ruin the anime. But the premise was so promising that I couldn't resist so I ended up reading up to date. The first part of the manga was the sweetest part. Seeing Rin as a child and Daikichi acting like a father was something really cute at the beginning. I liked this manga because it remained realistic until the end and it did not neglect the nature of humans.

The ending did not destroy anything, infact I was anticipating it. It was like 1 out of like 50 types of possible endings but in my opinion, the most likely to be happenning. How so?

Spoiler (mouse over to view)

The words "3rd grade relative" were actually mentioned just in the 2nd half of the manga but that was already obvious from the beginning. If the mangaka wished to end this one in another way then he might've chose another type of setting having Rin as an even closer relative. Technicaly I don't see any iregularity. They are two different people, connected just by their deceased grandfather, so teoretically they are not sharing the same genes, just a few of them, genetically speaking this is not something malicious. What I want to point to the ignorant people that kept saying the ending is disappointing is that you guys do not have any life experience at all. Of course Daikichi seemed like a father in the beginning because he had to take care of Rin since he assumed the responsabillity. But as time changes people change as well and feelings change too. That's why I say, that you people take the nature of humans pretty lightly. The ending might seem a little bit odd but lets not forget that this is slice of life, and stuff like this happen in real life as well.

All in all, a splendid work. I hope that the anime will do justice towards the manga.

I feel like everyone's comments about the ending being a total train wreck is very extreme. It wasn't all that sudden in my opinion; in fact, I had already considered it a very possible scenario even when I had only just started reading. I would have also preferred it if the time skip didn't happen, because I feel that a lot of character development, which would've eased some the feeling that many readers are having about an abrupt turn of events, didn't have a chance to occur.

Like everyone else, I thoroughly enjoyed the first half of the manga (pre-time skip). The time skip must have happened because of an external factor as its placement is quite sudden and awkward. I think that the ending was planned beforehand because there were several hints directing towards it, but it's just that its execution didn't go quite to plan.

Usagi Drop is one of my favorite familial stories. It takes a little girl with a memorable personality, and shoves her together with a somewhat inept, but good-hearted single parent, as is the cliche in the genre. What makes Usagi Drop so interesting is the writing- the author approaches the situation in interesting ways with unique little bits of humor and drama thrown in. Of course, the height is reading about Rin and her antics, but all of the characters that have been thus introduced are compelling on some level. People who like slice of life will enjoy this, anyone just looking for a lot of melodrama should probably continue searching though.

I guess many of you reviewers have somehow been mislead or had delusions going into this manga. Personally, I think

Spoiler (mouse over to view)

Rin's electra complex was realized fairly on and it made a lot of sense for her to develop one. I'd say the onus falls onto Daikichi to reject it as a phase, but, him being Daikichi and wanting to please Rin, gave in. I prefer it this way over Kouki though. That guy was annoying as hell.

Anyways, my biggest issue is with people saying that it's "wrong" or "immoral" and scoring it low just because of that. Yeah, you know what? It's supposed to be. I feel like they glossed over that for sure but Daikichi definitely is still having some internal conflict about the whole thing. Really, there is nothing wrong with writing a story like this, just as there is nothing wrong with writing stories like Lolita and Oedipus Rex. They are stories about humans- that's all there is to it. These were never perfect beings, and they were never meant to be.

This manga deals with family. You may be thinking of just daughter and father, but it's actually raising more questions about what family is than just that. A sweet story with wavering execution at times.

Oh, and by the way, Yumi Anita has said before that she intended it to be like this(the ending) from the beginning. If you are angry and feel that you have been blindsided by the ending, I am sorry, but, you should have realized and bowed out while you could.